Industrial research organisation the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on February 19 announced that it has partnered with the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) of Colombia operator Corporación Ruta N Medellin (C4IR.CO) to unlock the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, as well as to bolster research capacities in Colombia and South Africa.
The organisations have agreed to collaborate in the areas of AI, distributed ledger technologies and IoT.
"The new coalition will call for the promotion of multi-stakeholder partnerships to facilitate technical training in response to the demand for new skills, the transfer of new technologies and leveraging investment on required infrastructure for digital transformation," the statement said.
In terms of the agreement, C4IR.CO will work closely with the South African 4IR Centre (C4IR SA) as part of the World Economic Forum network of 4IR centres to develop frameworks and guidelines on new-age technology to leverage digital growth opportunities across its global network.
The C4IR SA, hosted at the CSIR, provides a platform for stakeholders in South Africa to work together on the evolution of new technologies.
The agreement also supports the CSIR's strategy of fostering innovation and industrial development by collaborating with the public and private sectors to develop technologies that address the needs of industry.
The implementation of the collaboration will be facilitated through a joint working group that will oversee the relationship between the organisations, including identifying programmes, developing action plans to implement and monitor the programmes, and implementing programmes in line with jointly agreed guidelines.